O'Gara's at the Fair

It’s an OK experience. The Reuben bites are pretty good.

The Pot o’ Gold Potato Dumplings were one of the highlights of my 2025 Minnesota State Fair experience. I ended up going back a second time to get more, and I wish I could have them in the freezer to make year round. Ordering early in the morning saved the concern of any wait on my initial visit, and returning at a busier time still didn’t have to wait to order or for the food to go out. An excellent and efficient state fair stop.

2024: O'Gara's Walking Shepherd's Pie at this year's Minnesota State Fair was a decent, but not outstanding, option. The idea of portable shepherd's pie was certainly appealing, and the flaky, buttery pastry lived up to the hype. Sadly, the filling itself was a bit bland. If you were looking for a convenient and filling snack to enjoy while exploring the fair, this was a decent choice. Just don't expect an explosion of flavor.

Friendly, decently priced and delicious (reuben bites). Lots of seating nearby, good (and cold) beer selection.

Always have a new fun food to try. This year's dill grilled cheese bites were great. The new Fulton Seltzer slushies are no where near as good as the White Claw ones they used to have but still alright. Fun place to stop!

The lady who served us around 7:53 PM 08/22/2024 at the end of the left cash register was very rude and disrespectful to us. She gave exceptional services to the customer before us and after us. We thought we would have that same service but instead, she decided that it was more important to talk to her coworkers about her Jean size and new tank tops she got. We waited 5 minutes for her to finish her conversation and then she decided to serve us when it was convient to her. After seeing that we were not WHITE (it's diabolical for me to pull the race card) she gave us the cold shoulder and no customer service whatsoever. She served our alcohol drinks to us with foam filling 2-3 inches on top of the cups. After walking away with our orders, I saw that those who were WHITE was served with great attitude and their drinks were filled to the brim. I came back explained my dissatisfaction to which she explained that "drinks should have two to three inches of foam". I explained to her "that's not what I saw from the other customer she served before and after us". Our drinks we under the blue line of the Treasurer Island cups that were served. The cashiers that served "others" as well filled everyone's cup and provided exceptional services. She decided that she should not apologize and gave us an attitude and cold shoulder which made her not to talk to us after bringing it to up our concerns. She then gave us an attitude and attempted to refill our drinks with new cups. To which, she gave us wrong drinks, poured the drinks back down the tap and then gave us our drinks to which I had to double check with her. She was rude and disrespectful, and a place like O'Gara's that disrespects people of color like us should not be here. I do not recommend coming here if an Irish restaurant has racist individual's who choose which colors deserves the best service. Especially with the attitude she proceed to provide us with knowingling she was in the wrong. Also, serving as a new food item, I would assume that they would like to make connection with new customers. With the food not being up to par and customer service, I advise those of color not to come here as their cashiers appreciate those of the same color as them. 0/5 stars.

Order a Ruben sandwich corn beef was not moist it was dried out/chewy also order the new item shepherd pie very bland needed some type seasoning and crust was a little dried out I know what order was under the heat lamp for quite some time was hot and gave me my order asap instead of making fresh . Very disappointing 😞 would be nice if they had fans inside to circulate the building so it’s not so hot and stuffy .

Food and beer ok. Service great, except... Got there early, ordered food and drink only to discover that GBLeighton wasn't going to play as the schedule stated. He was the whole reason I came to the fair this afternoon and paid admission. Would've saved time and money if they'd just kept the schedule updated! ☹️

Came here to give a shoutout to O'Gara's new Walking Shepherds Pie! Definitely one of my fav food that I've had at the fair, even though it cost me $10 for 3 small pieces. The pastry was buttery and flaky while the filling was creamy, savory and warm. Hubby loved their beer selection. Service was quick despite the long lines. Ambiance inside was fun and festive. Great job, O'Gara's!

O'Garas was packed as normal but able to find a place to hangout and have a couple drinks. The Cherry Berry Chill slushy was made with blueberry redbull and White claw seltzer. I'm not a huge fan of White Claw, but this was amazing and would order it again. Was a great way to start our State Fair experience.

Dixieland Delight! The band knew it. I'll be damned. Request bands are fun. So, I went back to the State Fair this year. Not as crowded and sweaty and miserable as I remember. O'Gara's was my first stop on my way in. You can't miss it. Just off to your left when you walk through the main gate. 5 bucks for a 12 ounce or 8 bucks for a 20 ounce. Not really all that more pricey than most places these days, except you paid the 11 to 15 bucks to get in past the gate. Met some friends. Had the Reuben Bites and the Grilled Cheese Bites. GCB just OK, Reuben bites were money. Cover band was playing while we there. Three dudes all on guitar. Quite good. Maybe better than G Love and Special Sauce playing next door. Country Rock but heavy on the Rock. They kept asking for requests and I gave them an obscure one, and they nailed it out of the park. Whooeee. GET ER DONE! Went and did the Space Tower, the Sky Ride and the Slingshot - TWICE! Needed a beer after that adrenaline rush. Old dude in front of me was flirting with chick behind me, but bought us both our beers! SCORE! Close to five stars. However, Fair prices suck and the food orders come out SLOOOWW.

Lines were long but moved fast! Rueben bites and the Irish whiskey boneless wings are amazing and worth the short wait!

Irish Tater Kegs Third in line in a three person line Thurs night and it took almost 15 minutes to get an order of Irish Tater Kegs that were sitting on the pass. Realized that at least 12-15 pre cooked tater keg orders were already up and sitting on shelf. Needless to say they were barely warm. No where near enough corned beef (let's call them specs). A quarter sized dollar of kraut. Decent idea poorly executed and poorly prepped. Third in line took 12-15 minutes to get food. Finally a woman saw our frustration and stepped up to the second open window ( after two young gents in front of the open window -who were resting -told us twice to stay in the other line) the woman served us in 30 seconds, as the other woman was slowly dealing with slow people who walked away with a beer and one item. Not enough corned beef. Meh. Not worth another try next year. Wanted to like them but nothing special

This is actually a complaint, and as a longtime customer, I'm not happy about having to file it. I was at the state fair Labor Day with the newspaper museum crew, and we needed to get drinks for a party of eight or nine. It had poured rain before we got there, the building was packed, and we asked to borrow some bar towels to dry some chairs and be seated. The young women and one very snotty young man (who said he'd never get in trouble which alas seems true) at first gave us a wet rag. Then we were told, there were no towels, they'd all been left outside in the rain. (Really? is that not a health code violation?) They finally sent out a nice young man with a shammy and he got the chairs sort of dry.he did his best. Honestly, i've been a customer at selby and snelling since 1983. We hold our church women's Christmas party at O'Gara's, for God's sake. Yes, the staff was tired. But I'd been at my church dining hall EVERY morning, and pulled four museum shifts, so don't make excuses about hard work. This as abysmal treatment and unless we get an apology, we won't be back. and my fellow volunteers love your Ruebens. so that is not easy. but I really am angry at the level of disrespect we were shown. I hope Dan sees this. I've known him for a long time. It's going up on yelp and on facebook and it stays until we get an apology. Don't assume you can look down your nose at older people. May you live long enough to get there.

I attended the back to the fifties event on Friday evening and both my friend and myself decided to do reubens for dinner. The corned beef was fatty and tough, the bread was mushy as was the sauerkraut and the dressing was sparse on both sandwiches. For the price we paid the quality was just not there and the wait was long also. O'Garas at the fair is certainly crossed off my list.